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Bangs - Sweet Revenge

Four stars

The Bangs, riot-grrls of the finest sort, are holding their own solidly in the Pacific Northwest indie camp. New recruit Kyle Ermatinger, drummer, joins Sarah Utter, guitarist and vocalist, and Maggie Vail, bassist and vocalist, for the band's follow-up to the acclaimed 1998 debut Tiger Beat.

Lively pop-punk is the group's niche, and they fill it well - as opposed to the vast majority of pop-punkers active today. Brisk, energetic and pretension-free, the album's 11 tracks go down without bitter aftertaste, all gritty guitars and rousingly yelping vocals.

Utter and Vail - the sister of Bikini Kill's drummer Tobi Vail - trade off on vocals, both sounding eerily similar to "Cherry Bomb"-era Joan Jett. The lyrics are unsentimental and intelligent, but the instruments are played so well it almost makes the lyrics moot. Every song is delivered with the conviction and rock 'n' roll abandon that are all too rare in modern music.

The group has been compared to Sleater-Kinney, sharing a city of origin (Olympia, Washington) and a record label, as well as certain musical similarities. However, the group downplays the similarities, instead offering the Ramones and Cheap Trick as influences.

The Bangs certainly exhibit the influence of those groups, even turning out an excellent cover of Cheap Trick's "Southern Girls." Like Cheap Trick at their finest, the Bangs produce tightly written, well-performed pop songs, played with punk energy.

Brash, loud and vital, this is as good as pop-punk gets.